Why do we bother to balance equations?
Balanced equations allow us to make predictions, determine how much reagent to use, and know how much product will be made. But to do any of these, we need to know what the numbers in the equation actually mean.
The numbers in an equation represent amount (n). The unit for this is called the mole. We use this unit because it represents a huge number of particles - approximately 600000000000000000000000!!!
One atom (or molecule or compound...) in an equation represents one mole of that particle.
We seldom have exactly one mole of anything reacting, so we need to know how to work with ratios to work out the exact amount of everything in an equation (you will always know the amount of at least one reagent or product). We will spend this week exploring calculations regarding the mole (amount).
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